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MOMMY

By Masahiro NIMURA

ARTICLE FILMS - as SALES All rights / PROD

First film - Completed 2024

Kenji Hayashi, husband of convicted murderer Masumi Hayashi, infamous for being the
perpetrator of the Wakayama poisoned curry incident, is using what remains of his life
to seek the truth.

- Year of production
- 2024
- Genres
- First film, Documentary, Crime
- Countries
- JAPAN
- Languages
- JAPANESE
- Budget
- 0.6 - 1 M$
- Duration
- 115 mn
- Director(s)
- Masahiro NIMURA
- Producer(s)
- Tomoko ISHIKAWA, Emi UEYAMA (ARTICLE FILMS)
- Synopsis
- On July 25th, 1998, the people of Japan were shocked by the news of the
  ruthless indiscriminate murders by poisoning, the “Wakayama Poisoned Curry massacre.” Masumi has proclaimed her innocence from day one. Nevertheless, in April 2009 the Supreme Court condemned her to the death penalty. Japan and America still retain the death penalty in this day and age, despite resistance. In Japan, 80% of the people are in favor of retaining capital punishment for the most serious of crimes 78 convicted death row inmates are seeking retrial due to wrongful convictions or false charges. But Japan’s retrial system is so difficult that it has been described as “the door that never opens,” and there is no support system in place to support the condemned. In the current system, once sentenced, there is basically no way to secure a retrial even in cases where the original conviction is in doubt. This film will focus on the impenetrability of Japan’s judicial system.
  In Sonobe, Wakayama Prefecture, during the annual summer festival, the fun fair took a sudden turn and descended into a hellish nightmare. 4 people including a small boy ended up dead, and a total of 67 people were poisoned by the curry rice served at the festival. The entire nation was stunned, horrified that their national comfort food, curry rice, had been used to carry out this horrific act.
  a housewife known for running insurance scams using arsenic was named as a suspect. was Masumi Hayashi, 37 years old at the time of the incident. Everyone immediately focused their attention on her. The press dubbed her the “Heisei Era Poison Lady” and reporters hounded her footsteps constantly. She was arrested for both murder and insurance fraud and sentenced to death in 2009. The whole of Japan breathed a collective sigh of relief when they heard that the Poison Lady’s fate had been sealed. Her husband Kenji raised his voice to proclaim that the whole case was just a farce. “I was the ringleader of this insurance scam. I drank arsenic of my own free will.” He stresses that the media coverage and the court proceedings were completely false. He tells us the police intimidated him to make the false claim that Masumi did the crime. Additionally, an independent body of scientists determined that it is highly possible that the data from the arsenic matching process was hidden to make Masumi a suspect. Kenji, now 79 years old, still lives close to the scene of the crime in order to gather more evidence and expose the truth, in hopes that the verdict might be reversed. This film tells Kenji Hayashi’s fascinating story, exposing the unheard and unbelievable truth that he claims can prove Masumi was wrongfully sentenced to death. By doing so, the story will also reveal a hidden dark side to Japan’s justice system: the biased media, corrupt police, and an unnavigable judicial system　the truth shall be told through this exposé.